Fit as Fiddles and as Hard as Nails

TCD MS 10516 folio 87 verso

[12th October 1916] Ur of the Chaldees.
The following notes may supplement the previous description, being inserted in places marked by a corresponding number.
(1). – or rather as modern authorities would infer, – Abraham, at the head of his Semite tribe

(2). Shallow graves were exposed, “dish-cover coffins” broken, human bones scattered about. Close to the graves were remnants of the earthenware pipes which the Chaldeans used to drain their sepulchral mounds.
(3). The slabs were of the finest quality equalling the best of modern bricks and vastly superior to those with which the modern Arab town is built. They were of various hues, shapes and sizes; the largest measuring 13×13 inches. The tenacity of the cementing bitumen was improved

TCD MS 10516 folio 87 recto

[12th October 1916] therefore compelled to change its bed under this pressure; it is being driven southward by the Tigris which, in its effect, might be considered as a large lateral affluent of the Euphrates. Thus the course of the Euphrates is here obliged to conform to the thrust of its more powerful partner. Its main stream is broken; it is divided into two smaller channels, one of which recieves the Tigris, the other is a more recent channel gradually developing some thirty miles to the south, while in between the channels is a complex sea of swamps and lakes and water-courses, the overflow that the thrust of the Tigris is forcing across the desert.
It seems usual for the course of a river winding through an alluvial plain to depend in some degree on the volume of its lateral affluents*.
*(1) Ganges: Geology of India (2) Tarim River.

TCD MS 10516 folio 86 verso

[12th October 1916] Pencil sketch of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Tigris coming from the North unites with the Euphrates from the west at a right angle to form the Shatt-al-Arab. Now, at this confluence, the Tigris is the greater of the two rivers, and its volume of water pouring through the left bank of the Euphrates is forcing the latter river to yield before the inflow. The Euphrates is

TCD MS 10516 folio 86 recto

[12th October 1916] and brown, laden with a fine sediment; those of the Euphrates are bright and clear, much of the silt having settled in a higher lake, and the river now reflects the gleam of transparent waters.The muddy Tigris joins the clear blue Euphrates; for a short distance the two streams, in striking contrast, flow side by side. Soon the waters are mingled and not far below the confluence, we observe the combined stream of these mighty rivers foul with suspended silt. But of more interest than the relation to Biblical legend and the clash of contrasting waters is the manner in which the flow of one river has influenced the flow of the other river at their point of union. Above the confluence the Tigris flows almost due north and south; the Euphrates almost due west and east. Thus the

TCD MS 10516 folio 85 verso

[12th October 1916] we could detect four smaller spots. In the evening on the river bank we used to watch these mighty changes in the sun; so immense were they that, as the sun paled in the west, we could detect the spots with the naked eye.

Shifting of River-bed: – The Tigris and Euphrates are both great rivers known to us from remote antiquity. At Kurna they unite to form a still mightier stream navigable for ocean-going vessels. Their point of confluence is a place of the greatest interest. It is this junction of the rivers that is one of the supposed sites of the Garden of Eden, a supposition which, I think, geology can fully disprove. The actual meeting of the waters cannot but attract attention. Those of the Tigris are dark

TCD MS 10516 folio 85 recto

[12th October 1916] southerly wind grows feebler, then passes to a dead calm as human vitality declines. Streams of cooler air from the Northern mountains, first faint but quickly growing strong, come rushing down over the desert; the hot humid vapours are rolled back over the sea, and the “Shimāl” from the north, loaded with dust and sand, bending the palm-trees, curling the waters of the great rivers, sweeps away the moisture clouds, cools, dries, stimulates the air, and renews with life and vigour the devitalized bodies of men.

Sun-spots. In the month of June we observed a remarkable outburst of sunspots; of these one was very large, it must have been an enormous area of disturbance. Following the main spot over the face of the sun

TCD MS 10516 folio 84 verso

[12th October 1916] white clouds of moisture scatter over the heavens, the atmosphere grows more humid, the thermometer rises by day to over 120°F. and life seems almost intolerable in the unceasing sweat and gasping heat. This Southerly wind struggles to maintain itself against a growing pressure from the north; at times it flows almost imperceptibly, then rushes onward with renewed force to fade again in an absolute calm which puts all human endurance on its trial. The heat becomes insufferable in this stagnant air; not even the nights give relief; the oppression of the body is only equalled by the depression of the mind*. Every eye scans the heavens for signs of a change when the southerly inflow shall be rolled back. But the increasing and opposing northerly pressure soon prevails. The

*No wonder the Chaldeans of old hung the figures of monstrous demons in their windows to repel the South Westerly wind

TCD MS 10516 folio 83 verso

[12th October 1916] dense and black, concealing the evening heavens in an impenetrable cloud. The sun sank behind this pall of smoke, presenting an unreal face, deprived of its piercing rays and glittering lustre. It peered blood-red through the wall of blackest cloud or streamed in a coppery disc through a dense and dingy sky. It reminded me of the descriptions of the setting sun behind the clouds of volcanic dust that burst from the vent of Cotopaxi.

Clouds: – The cloudless desert skies can scarcely be imagined by the European. Month after month may roll by without a visible trace of watery vapour to obscure the constant sky. Dark veils of dust may float over the horizon but seldom in the hot season do we see the faintest cloud.

TCD MS 10516 folio 83 recto

[12th October 1916] ry aloft is disseminated through a depth of atmosphere thousands of feet in thickness that conceals the fierce rays of the sun for three hours before the setting of its globe.
Dusts of all kinds spread abroad through the sky burnish the sun with a metallic sheen. The sand from the desert dims it to a ghostly silver white; the dust from a volcanic crater colours it with fleeting tints of green or red or tarnished copper or shining brass. I recollect a delightfully still and peaceful evening drifting idly in the Euphrates river. Every boat, with its white sheet of limp and empty sail was reflected in the mirrored stream as a vision of graceful beauty. Away to the west the smoke of burning kilns ascended into the sky, an enormous column,